Ninjago

Zane's Ice Dragon Battle

A quick, colorful 4+ dragon fight that costs more than it should.

Brick Rated Score

3.2/5

Set 71865 · 2026

Pieces141

Minifigs4

Year2026

Set number71865

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

This one is built for a very specific kid, the one who wants a dragon and a snake fighting on the living room floor in the next ten minutes, not the one hunting for clever engineering.

The Starter Brick gets little hands moving fast, and both creatures actually pose well once they're done. My honest hesitation is the math, 141 pieces for forty dollars is a rough exchange rate even by LEGO's 4+ standards. I'd grab this for a Dragons Rising fan under eight, and skip it if you're shopping by price per piece.

Best for: kids around 4 to 7 who love the Dragons Rising show and want fast, satisfying play

The full review

What it is

Zane's Ice Dragon Battle is one of four smaller sets LEGO released alongside season 4 of Dragons Rising, and it wears that little-sibling status openly. You get an ice dragon with posable legs, tail, wings, head and jaw and a saddle for two minifigures, plus a snake with its own posable tail, neck and jaw and a single rider seat. Zane, Sora, and two Acid Monster villains round out the cast, and there's a small side build of golden dragon claws that reads like a prize piece straight out of the show. It comes together fast thanks to a Starter Brick, the partly built base plate LEGO uses in its youngest sets so a kid gets a real model standing up within the first few minutes rather than staring at a pile of tan plates.

The catch

Here's where I have to be straight with you. Piece count is 141 for a US $39.99 price tag, and that's a noticeably weaker ratio than most sets in this line. Reviewers who got early copies called it out directly, some flagged it as a pass on value alone, even while admitting it does exactly what a 4+ set needs to do. The build itself is intentionally simple, mostly large, chunky elements with basic connections, so if you're buying for a kid who already has a stack of bigger Ninjago sets under their belt, this won't challenge them for long.

Who it's for

I'd put this in a shopping cart for a younger Dragons Rising fan who wants two creatures to crash into each other today, not next weekend. The four minifigures alone carry real play value for that age, especially with two villains to go with the hero. If you're an adult collector or a parent shopping strictly by pieces per dollar, though, there are better uses of forty dollars in the current Ninjago wave.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

This is a fast build by design. Both creatures snap together around big, simple joints, the dragon's wings, tail, and jaw all move once it's finished, and the snake's neck and jaw give it enough personality to actually chase a minifig across the carpet. The Starter Brick base does a lot of the early heavy lifting, which is exactly the point for a set aimed at four year olds building mostly on their own.

The parts that caught my eye came from New Elementary's teardown, a new Brick Special 4x10 with a recessed center and wedged ends, a dragon wing recolored in Light Aqua, and freshly printed dragon head pieces in Dark Purple and White with a Trans-Light Blue pattern that gives this ice dragon its own identity rather than reusing an old fire dragon mold wholesale. The loose golden dragon claws are a nice touch too, they show up as a shared prize element across the wave of four small sets, which suggests they matter to the season 4 story.

Fun facts

01This set was released June 1, 2026 in most countries but held back until August 1, 2026 in North America.
02It's one of four small sets (71862, 71863, 71864, 71865) that launched together to tie into season 4 of Ninjago: Dragons Rising.
03The ice dragon's head pieces use a newly printed Dark Purple and White design with a Trans-Light Blue pattern rather than reusing an existing dragon head mold.
04The golden dragon claws included as a side build appear across multiple sets in this wave, hinting they function as an in-story power-up.